Dengue Fever In Cm.

[coma]

Hi to all Chiang Mai residents.

I live here in the city and have just come down with dengue fever. This is the second time for me. Last time I had it was here 2 years ago when, at that time there was a large outbreak of the disease. My current symptoms are high temperature [39 average before paracetamol] pain in my muscles and joints, spilting headache, sore eyes and the red rash has just starting to become quite appartent on my chest and neck.

I guess I just want to firstly put the feelers out and see if anybody else has had it/got it so far this year or knows of anybody that has it /had it ? Both for my own knowledge and for that of any others who are interested. I did read a medical report last night that said there has been 200 cases so far in Chiang Mai this year.

http://www.expatnews...break-expected/

Secondly I just want to let fellow residents know that it is indeed here this year as I am going through the joys of it now and would like to remind you all that it really sux arse. Prevention is indeed the best thing to do.

My best friends now are water, paracetamol and my bed.

[cmbe]

You should go to hospital, now you can take only a little paracetamol but not aspirine (ibuprofen). http://www.chiangmaisos.com/q-dengue-hemorrhagic-fever/

[Maejo Man]

I would also suggest a packet of electrolyte such as Oras once a day, along with plenty of fluids. Sounds like you have a mild dose, although still feel like crap. I was in hospital for a week, and delirious along with all your symptoms. Took months to get over it.

Nothing much you can do except keep the fluid intake up and rest. If it gets any worse, get straight down to the hospital.

Edited July 18, 2012 by Maejo Man

[eyecatcher]

Thank you for the heads up on this; but what exactly can we all do to prevent catching it in the first place and then what initial treatment can we give ourselves before heading to the raan phayabaan.

I was in the Mccormick 2yr ago, and the elderly farang in the bed beside me was being treated for the dengue. He told me he wall 100% sure it was from eating roadside chicken, whcih was a shock to me.

He said it was life threatening, and maybe it was at his age with a reduced immune system.

Had been there 2 days already with the nurses just trying to control the fevers and the shakes.

On a brighter side (If I may please), he then told me the doctor had put him on a pizza and pancake diet ...when he asked why,..it was becasue thats all they could fit under the door.

Edited July 18, 2012 by eyecatcher

[Tywais]

I was in the Mccormick 2yr ago, and the elderly farang in the bed beside me was being treated for the dengue. He told me he wall 100% sure it was from eating roadside chicken, whcih was a shock to me.

He said it was life threatening, and maybe it was at his age with a reduced immune system.

Probably best to get the causes out of the way.

How is dengue fever contracted?

The virus is contracted from the bite of a striped Aedes aegypti mosquito that has previously bitten an infected person. The mosquito flourishes during rainy seasons but can breed in water-filled flower pots, plastic bags, and cans year-round. One mosquito bite can cause the disease.

The virus is not contagious and cannot be spread directly from person to person. There must be a person-to-mosquito-to-another-person pathway.

How can dengue fever be prevented?

The transmission of the virus to mosquitoes must be interrupted to prevent the illness. To this end, patients are kept under mosquito netting until the second bout of fever is over and they are no longer contagious.

The prevention of dengue requires control or eradication of the mosquitoes carrying the virus that causes dengue. In nations plagued by dengue fever, people are urged to empty stagnant water from old tires, trash cans, and flower pots. Governmental initiatives to decrease mosquitoes also help to keep the disease in check but have been poorly effective.

To prevent mosquito bites, wear long pants and long sleeves. For personal protection, use mosquito repellant sprays that contain DEET when visiting places where dengue is endemic. There are no specific risk factors for contracting dengue fever, except living in or traveling to an area where the mosquitoes and virus are endemic. Limiting exposure to mosquitoes by avoiding standing water and staying indoors two hours after sunrise and before sunset will help. The Aedes aegypti mosquito is a daytime biter with peak periods of biting around sunrise and sunset. It may bite at any time of the day and is often hidden inside homes or other dwellings, especially in urban areas.

There is currently no vaccination available for dengue fever. There is a vaccine undergoing clinical trials, but it is too early to tell if it will be safe or effective. Early results of clinical trials show that a vaccine may be available by 2015.

http://www.medicinenet.com/dengue_fever/page2.htm

[tolstoy]

Eye Catcher:

You cannot get Dengue fever from eating roadstall chicken. That is the most ridiculuous thing I have heard. You get it from a certain type of mosquito which comes out between 3-6pm usually.

As stated above you put others at risk if you get bit during the time that you have it so don't let mosquitos bite you while you are sleeping.

Kee your house area free of stagnant water, or other places that are dark and damp for mosquitos to breed.

Every virus/bacterial infection is life threatening to some point (especially old and young). But really dengue fever, H1N1 are more of a nuiscance for most people than a life threatening illness.

[eyecatcher]

Eye Catcher:

You cannot get Dengue fever from eating roadstall chicken. That is the most ridiculuous thing I have heard. You get it from a certain type of mosquito which comes out between 3-6pm usually.

well that is good news then! and I was one of those who thought you could catch AIDS from a toilet seat.

Lets hope the mossies that come out are able to tell the time its between 3-6pm .

[uptoyoumyfriend]

[quote

You should go to hospital, now you can take only a little paracetamol but not aspirine (ibuprofen). http://www.chiangmai...orrhagic-fever/

thge bit about aspirin is correct since dengue drasically reduces the platelets in the blood and aspirin also keeps the blood from clotting

ibuprofen however is not aspirin

one thing that helped me a lot me a lot where pills against nausea or vomiting so i could actually drink and eat.

drinking lots of fluid is the most important.

[FolkGuitar]

I'm amazed that you can type and even care to start your computer. When I had Dengue, I was so sick I just wanted to die. I hurt so badly I was actually in tears for days, and could do nothing but lay in bed and moan for almost a week. I was on an island in the south of Thailand that didn't have a hospital at the time, not even a doctor. The only help was the nurse-practitioner in the drug store. I hope yours ends quickly and smoothly.

[orang37]

Sawasdee Khrup, Khun Coma,

Very sorry to hear you are experiencing dengue fever. I've had it once while here.

These statements are based on what I knew several years ago: new information may be available that updates these statements, or changes their validity: hope people who might have newer information may comment.

1. Only the female of Aedes Aegyptus carries the virus, and only a mature female can infect you.

2. The virus can also be carried by another mosquito, which is much less common.

3. After the "incubation period" after the infecting bite of about a week: dramatic symptoms appear very suddenly: it is my belief that "mild" cases of dengue are exceptional. In the most serious of cases the red-blood cell platelets can become so scarce that there may be bleeding, internally, by perfusion, in the lungs, even through the eyes. Yes, it can kill you.

4. There are (were ?) four strains of the dengue virus family, and having an infection from one of the strains does not cross-immunize you against the other strains.

5. A second dengue infection, or third, or whatever, can be even more dangerous than the first.

6. Once symptoms appear your red-blood count will drop dramatically for about six or seven days: if you survive that: you will live, unless you've gotten so weak in general (or if you are immune system compromised) that complications, like other infections, etc., have set in.

You should definitely be having your red-blood cell count monitored every day in the first week after the symptoms appear: if it goes low enough, you may need to be hospitalized, and have blood-transfusions.

When I had it (at age 58 or so), I went, in the space of less than half-an-hour from feeling fine to feeling like I was dying. I did not require hospitalization, but it took me six weeks to fully recover from it. The only thing I could bear to eat during the severe seven days was smoothies with milk and banana: I lost fifteen pounds quickly.

to your health, ~o:37;

[Ulysses G.]

"Prevention is indeed the best thing to do."

I'm not sure how much one can really do. There are mosquitoes that carry it that bite 24 hours a day and it is found in the city as well as the sticks.

[ChiangMai101]

I know of one case and it is not as if I know hundreds of people here. The husband of a friend of mine came down with dengue last week. He is also an inner city resident and has not travelled to any other areas. Hope you feel better soon coma.

[BlackArtemis]

Had it in 2008, did a week at Ram.

Sucked, but I made it.

[cmbe]

[quote

You should go to hospital, now you can take only a little paracetamol but not aspirine (ibuprofen). http://www.chiangmai...orrhagic-fever/

thge bit about aspirin is correct since dengue drasically reduces the platelets in the blood and aspirin also keeps the blood from clotting

ibuprofen however is not aspirin

one thing that helped me a lot me a lot where pills against nausea or vomiting so i could actually drink and eat.

drinking lots of fluid is the most important.

Sorry, my mistake, do not take aspirine or ibuporfen. http://wikitravel.org/en/Dengue_fever

[L&J]

Prevention from dengue is nearly impossible if that is what you want. A recent study found that the very best mosquito repellant

is only 70% effective and that that substance is not what you find in stores. Telling everybody to avoid getting bitten is good advice but

it still is mostly chance. However we had a friend who contracted it. We noted when we went to their house that the doors and windows

were always open and there were no screens on them. You want to increase your chances of getting dengue then living like that is

a good way to do it. Hope the poster feels better soon there is enough pain in the world.

[T_Dog]

After having Dengue, make sure you avoid strenuous activity for a few months (yes months) to avoid post Dengue depression syndrome. Your blood platelets need a long time to recover, and if you don't let that happen, this rather long lasting syndrome may occur. Get your doctor's advice with Dengue.

[coma]

I'm amazed that you can type and even care to start your computer. When I had Dengue, I was so sick I just wanted to die. I hurt so badly I was actually in tears for days, and could do nothing but lay in bed and moan for almost a week. I was on an island in the south of Thailand that didn't have a hospital at the time, not even a doctor. The only help was the nurse-practitioner in the drug store. I hope yours ends quickly and smoothly.

I know what you are saying. 2 years ago when I had it I was left feeling totally destroyed and ended up in hospital for 3 days with tubes hanging out of me. This time the symptoms are every bit as painful however there seems to be distinct ups and downs. I guess calling them 'lulls' would be a good word to describe them. Only day three now and last night was worse than the night before.

[coma]

Thanks for all the replies and words of wisdom. It seems most of us are well informed and on the same sheet of paper.

Day 3. Another day stuck at home drinking water, eating paracetamol and sleeping. So far have avoided a hospital admittance.

[FolkGuitar]

When I say I was laying in bed for a week I mean I could not get OUT of bed... By the third day I was peeing into a chamber pot just so I didn't have to get out of bed. It left me weak as a kitten for weeks afterwards. I hope you don't have to go through that. As for hospital admittance, I PRAYED for hospital admittance, but unfortunately there was none to be had where I was. 25 years ago, Koh Tao didn't even have 24 hour electricity.

[T_Dog]

When I say I was laying in bed for a week I mean I could not get OUT of bed... By the third day I was peeing into a chamber pot just so I didn't have to get out of bed. It left me weak as a kitten for weeks afterwards. I hope you don't have to go through that. As for hospital admittance, I PRAYED for hospital admittance, but unfortunately there was none to be had where I was. 25 years ago, Koh Tao didn't even have 24 hour electricity.

Yeah, it is a strange disease. I had the symptoms for 3 days and felt better on the 4th day. On the fifth day I could not get out of bed either and the rash got much worse. It was all the wife could do to get me to the hospital. The absolute feeling of weariness is something I had never experienced before.

[cmbe]

Old style wound treatment: honey.

[cmbe]

Thanks for all the replies and words of wisdom. It seems most of us are well informed and on the same sheet of paper.

Day 3. Another day stuck at home drinking water, eating paracetamol and sleeping. So far have avoided a hospital admittance.

I do not think it is a good idea that you are trying to avoid to admit in the hospital for this disease.

[FolkGuitar]

Just a quick question; what makes you think you have Dengue Fever? If you haven't been to a doctor, and are not experiencing (from what you post and from the fact that you CAN post) all the usual symptoms of Dengue, why do you suppose it IS Dengue?

[coma]

Just a quick question; what makes you think you have Dengue Fever? If you haven't been to a doctor, and are not experiencing (from what you post and from the fact that you CAN post) all the usual symptoms of Dengue, why do you suppose it IS Dengue?

double post

Edited July 19, 2012 by coma

[coma]

Just a quick question; what makes you think you have Dengue Fever? If you haven't been to a doctor, and are not experiencing (from what you post and from the fact that you CAN post) all the usual symptoms of Dengue, why do you suppose it IS Dengue?

I don't know why I am even replying to you. Do you believe that every case must have the same symptoms as you and as severe as yours ? And if not then they don't have dengue fever ? I find it impossible as the way you post is that nobody has experience the pain of dengue as much as you did 25 years ago on Koh Tao. You did take pains to post this twice. I know your like. You are from the bred of "my cat is blacker than yours " Read other peoples posts and learn. I resent the implication of melingering. Get a life you

Edited July 19, 2012 by coma

[masuk]

There were annual outbreaks of Dengue in Townsville, QLD Australia. There was a 'Mosquito Busters' team and they worked on the basis that the dengue mozzie only travels about 150 metres from its breeding site.

So if you've got the fever, it will most likely be coming from stagnant water not far from where you were bitten.

Singapore local govt. is really tough on people who leave out pot plants or anything that will hold water. It's a FINE city, but it seems to work.

[FolkGuitar]

No need to get so defensive. I didn't post it twice. Looking back I see that I only asked you once why you think what you have is Dengue Fever. I certainly didn't know what I had when it got me, and I have some medical background experience. I'm just curious how you knew... Nothing more than that.

Certainly everyone reacts to illnesses differently. And I sincerely hope that your illness isn't so severe as others have experienced. I'll chalk up your short temper to the fact that you are ill, and wish you a speedy recovery.

[wasanajones]

My niece just came down with it. She spent three days in hospital in Bangkok and came back to Chiang Mai (she thinks she contracted it near our house in Mae Taeng, 40km north of Chiang Mai). What I find Amazing is that she and her girlfriend understand the blood count thing and are going to get a checkup today, but completely unaware of the risk of her spreading it by being bitten by a yung... I'm not sure how long she would be 'contagious' through a bite, but I advised her about that and surrounded the guesthouse with mosquito coils...

My wife works for the local amphur gov't and they seem completely oblivious to the seriousness of a Dengue outbreak. Very little effort at vector control of mosquitoes to begin with, but if there is a dengue outbreak here a lot of people are at high risk - many elderly, poor rural farmer folk with negligible public health assistance or awareness.

I was on Maui, Hawaii ten years or so ago when there was a dengue outbreak and they quarantined part of the island and did a statewide mosquito eradication effort that had immense impact on not just controlling mosquitoes but cleaning up the islands (old tires etc)

Would be great if the gov't actually took some action....

[weary]

There are both more and less severe types.

I know from two people in my circle of friends, one who was in a near-critical condition and hospitalized for a full month, lost a lot of weight and would vomit as soon as he tried to eat anything for over a week, while my other friend had a milder form that was not much worse than your average flu bout - after getting the diagnosis, he was able to stay at home for self-treatment. One oddity he mentioned was that food that normally tasted good to him, suddenly seemed revolting. Anyway, my point is, both of them were diagnosed with dengue.

So it varies. You may have had it, and not even realized what it was.

[AnkertilBrewer]

Just one little handy bit of advice about fighting their numbers. OK, as people said, you should drain any stagnant water, because they need that to lay their eggs in. The larvae hand out mostly upside down, and twitching, in the water for days or more until they metamorphosis as adult mosquitoes and go about with their evil plan.

There is one thing one can do that is better than just draining stagnant water. Fish. Fish will eat all of the nasty little larvae, and some fish (actually a lot of them), will snap up the female mosquito when she alights on the water to deposit her eggs. Your typical, cheap guppies are perfect for this. They are also live breeders, which means they don't lay eggs, so their offspring mostly survive. Start off with a 4-5 guppies, and you have a school in a couple months (assuming you started off with some females).

Those guppies can survive WITHOUT any bubbler for oxygen or filter. Just put some plants in there to help clean the water. Lots of plants, like Philodendron can grow directly in water. Just break off a piece from an existing plant and you can start a new one. You don't even need plants, but it's a good idea. Make sure your container is shallow so the fish can get enough oxygen from the surface. You could get a small amount of fish food to feed them, and they will still eat up any mosquito larvae or eggs and even the mosquitoes themselves.

Point of all this is not just to start your own fish colonies, which is easy and fun, but also to not only take away potential places for mosquitoes (or any an all varieties) to lay their eggs, but go one step further and make traps for them where they either will be gobbled up or their progeny will. Lose lose situation for the mosquitoes.

I can't say for sure that having some guppies around (ANY fish, other than algae eaters will work, but guppies are probably the cheapest and easiest) will reduce how much you'd get bitten versus just emptying all the stagnant water, but, when I've kept a fish bowl in my house, I've gotten bit a lot less. Actually, I wasn't bitten at all in the last year indoors, but I also wasn't in CM.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guppy

Note that goldfish with also work fine. But you don't want a bubbler because the water needs to be still on the surface to attract the mosquitoes.

Siamese Fighting fish are ideal, as are paradise fish. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_fish

I'd be quite tempted to raise guppies and then periodically net some out and just dump them into any local reservoir of stagnant water where I think the fish would survive (er, some people raise plants in water and DON'T bother to put small fish in there, though they'd benefit the plants and vice-versa).